A large majority of Americans agree with him. In fact, a majority of Americans in every state, even conservative Mississippi, support legislation that would ban workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And that makes perfect sense for exactly one reason: To oppose this legislation, which is called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, is to support the idea that LGBT people can be fired for being themselves.

We have laws to protect people of different races, religions and disabilities from being fired because of who they are. But no federal legislation for LGBT people. A minority of states have passed laws of their own, but why should it be legal for a lesbian in Utah to receive no workplace protection when, across a state border, she would have it in Colorado?

This is an issue the American people have decided on. They know it's good for business, as Apple's CEO argued in The Wall Street Journal. "We've found that when people feel valued for who they are, they have the comfort and confidence to do the best work of their lives," Tim Cook wrote.

And they know it undermines who we are as Americans, as President Barack Obama said this week. "It's offensive. It's wrong. And it needs to stop," the president wrote in an op-ed in The Huffington Post, "because in the United States of America, who you are and who you love should never be a fireable offense."

But none of that will matter, really, if the nondiscrimination bill can't get past the House of Representatives. Also on Monday, House Speaker John Boehner reaffirmed his opposition to ENDA. "The Speaker believes this legislation will increase frivolous litigation and cost American jobs, especially small business jobs," Boehner's spokesman said, according to The Huffington Post.

Nevermind that that argument was undermined by a June Government Accountability Office report that found that not to be true in states that already have nondiscrimination laws. What's scary is that Boehner's opposition to this civil rights legislation could keep it from a vote in the House.

Let's hope logic and compassion change his mind.

I know that sounds naive, but stranger things have happened.

Cooley, for example, the corrections officer in Mississippi, sued and got his job back. He was able to do so because he works for a public employer. Had he worked for a private company, he might not have been so lucky, attorneys and experts who specialize in LGBT employment law told me in March when I first reported on Cooley and his saga.